YSU has no answer for Wright State's Simmons

By CHARLES GROVE

sports@vindy.com

FAIRBORN

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team had no answer for Wright State senior Symone Simmons in a 70-65 loss Sunday afternoon at the Nutter Center.

Simmons celebrated senior day in dominant fashion. The forward only shot 3-of-13 from the field, scoring 10 points, but she grabbed 21 rebounds, 11 on the offensive end in what YSU head coach John Barnes called the difference.

“Simmons willed her team to win,” Barnes said. “[Her rebounding] was the whole game. If we find a way to keep her off the boards we probably win the game.”

At the final horn, YSU was outrebounded on the offensive end 20-9.

On Jan. 18, YSU stuck it to Wright State at Beeghly Center, winning 83-68 in a game where the Penguins trailed for only 44 seconds. Sunday, YSU led for only 40 seconds.

“We just came out soft,” YSU senior Sarah Cash said. “They got offensive rebounds and that gave them momentum.”

Mary Dunn was the highlight offensively for YSU (20-7, 12-4 Horizon League). She had an efficient game, scoring 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Wright State senior Emily Vogelpohl led all scorers with 20 points and at one point in the second quarter hit six shots in a row for the league-leading Raiders (21-6, 13-2 Horizon League).

It appeared like Wright State was going to run away from the Penguins in the second quarter when they stretched the lead to 14 at the 2:20 mark, but YSU hung around before making a 7-0 run to close out the third quarter, trailing just 52-47.

Wright State pushed the lead back to seven a minute into the fourth quarter before YSU again made a run. Melinda Trimmer hit a 3-pointer to get the lead to 57-55 midway through the quarter and Dunn hit a jumper with 39 seconds left to make it 66-63. But WSU closed the game out down the stretch with free throws.

“I’m disappointed because I know we could’ve beat them,” Dunn said. “I think we’re going to play them again [in the conference tournament] so we need to learn from this.”

Defensively, YSU held the top team in the league to 2-of-14 from 3-point range, but only shot 23 percent from 3 on their end.

NOTES

YSU senior Alison Smolinski became the 21st player in program history to score 1,000 points on a layup in the fourth quarter.